Kazakhstan borrows from new Borat movie to woo tourists
Ridiculed once again in a film featuring fictional Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev, the ex-Soviet state of Kazakhstan has embraced the joke this time round and adopted Borat’s catchphrase to try to attract tourists.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, a follow-up to a 2006 film featuring the same sexist and racist character, was released on Amazon Prime last week.
Like the first film, the movie has Borat on the rampage in the United States where he tries to trick US politicians and others into letting their guard down and compromising themselves.
Borat’s first outing caused anger in Kazakhstan where authorities discouraged its screening and threatened legal action over what they saw as an insult to their national character.
This time round, they have taken a different approach and adopted Borat’s catchphrase “Very Nice!” to try to promote tourism in the vast Central Asian country.
In a slick video released by the tourism board featuring spectacular mountains and lakes, an exotic food market, and futuristic-looking cityscapes, a series of foreign tourists use the catch phrase to signal their appreciation for what they are seeing.
The idea to use Borat’s catch phrase belongs to Dennis Keen, a
US citizen living in Kazakhstan.
“It was something I’d been thinking about for years as everyone who comes here is aware of the Borat thing being attached to the country’s brand,” Keen told Reuters.
Borat’s “Very Nice!” catch phase could be put to good use instead, he said. “It’s actually the perfect description of the country in the most sincere way. The people and the food are very nice.”
Covid-19 means tourism in Kazakhstan has been hard hit by travel restrictions and border closures. But Kairat Sadvakassov, deputy chairman of Kazakh tourism, said he hoped the campaign would help people see that Borat’s jokes about the country were off target when the situation improved.